G)tb[     ^XK(VOtU 


Press  Bulletin   Series  Issued  Twice  Quarterly 

STATE  OF  ILLINOIS 
DEPARTMENT  OF  REGISTRATION  AND  EDUCATION 

A.  M.  SHELTON,  Director 


eolog\cal 

No.10  LLINOIS   PETROLEUM  July  23,  1927 


DIVISION  OF  THE  fiJLlNOl3  0/  oV 

STATE  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY*1"  cUo\/tV   l  lv3R^ 

M.  M.  LEIGHTON.  Chief,   Urbana  ©  r\P  T     %»•*" 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Structure  of  Centralia  and  Sandoval  oil  fields,  Illinois 1 

New  producing  horizon  in  Wabash  County 12 

STRUCTURE   OF    CENTRALIA   AND    SANDOVAL   OIL    FIELDS, 

ILLINOIS  : 

By  A.   H.  Bell 

Introduction 

Ranking  next  after  the  eastern  Illinois  fields  (situated  chiefly  in  Clark, 
Crawford,  and  Lawrence  counties)  in  total  oil  production  for  the  State  are 
the  Carlyle  field,  Clinton  County,  and  the  Sandoval  field,  Marion  County. 
The  former  has  produced  approximately  3,500,000  barrels  of  oil  and  the 
latter  2,500,000  barrels. 

A  detailed  description  of  the  Carlyle  field  was  published"  as  a  result  of 
a  study  made  after  the  greater  part  of  the  drilling  had  been  done.  For  the 
Sandoval  field,  on  the  other  hand,  the  only  published  information3  was  the 
result  of  a  study  made  when  only  two  of  the  producing  wells  had  been  drilled, 
and  hence  little  could  be  included  in  that  report  about  the  details  of  the 
structure.  Since  that  time  oil  has  been  produced  from  about  100  wells  in 
the  Sandoval  pool  and  the  results  of  a  study  of  all  of  the  available  data  are 
embodied  in  the  present  paper. 

The  report  deals  with  an  area  about  100  square  miles  in  extent,  situated 
in  the  southeast  part  of  Marion  County  and  adjacent  part  of  Clinton  County. 
This  area  includes  the  Sandoval  pool,  and  a  number  of  smaller  productive 
pools  which  in  order  of   importance  are    (1)    Wamac,    (2)    Junction   City, 


1  This  paper  was  planned  as  a  contribution  to  the  symposium  recently  organized 
by  the  American  Association  of  Petroleum  Geologists  on  the  subject  of  "Relation  of 
structure  to  petroleum  accumulation  in  oil  fields",  the  results  of  which,  gathered  from 
the  oil  fields  of  the  entire  country,  will  ultimately  be  published  in  one  volume  by  the 
Association.  As  the  present  paper  contains  some  structural  data  hitherto  unpublished, 
gathered  under  the  auspices  of  the  Illinois  State  Geologieal  Survey,  it  is  desirable  that 
such  data  be  first    published  by   the   Survey. 

2  Shaw,  E.  W.,  The  Carlyle  oil  field  and  surrounding  territory:  Illinois  State  Geol. 
Survey  Eull.  20,  pp.   45-80,   1915. 

•  Blatchley,  U.  S.,  Illinois  oil  resources:  Illinois  State  Geol.  Survey  Bull,  l(i,  pp. 
130-146,   1910. 


2  ILLINOIS   PETROLEtTM 

(3)    Langewisch-Kuester,    (4)    Brown.      Brief    preliminary    reports    on    all 
except  the  Sandoval  pools  have  heen  published.4 

Acknowledgments 

The  writer  is  under  obligation  to  the  oil  and  coal  operators  of  the  dis- 
trict for  placing  at  his  disposal  the  information  that  rendered  the  work  pos- 
sible. Joseph  H.  Markley,  Jr.,  acted  as  field  assistant.  Former  publications 
of  the  Illinois  Geological  Survey  have  been  freely  drawn  upon,  chiefly  for 
information  about  the  history  of  development. 

Physiography 

The  physiography  of  the  region  is  not  described  in  this  report  because 
it  is  controlled  by  Pleistocene  glacial  deposits  and  the  thickness  of  these 
deposits  obscures  the  structure  of  the  Paleozoic  rocks. 

History5 

"The  discovery  and  use  of  oil  from  a  seep  in  the  mine  of  the  Marion 
County  Coal  Company,  sec.  30,  T.  2  N.,  R.  1  E.,  attracted  oil  operators  to 
this  section  of  the  State.     The  see])  in  the  mine  came  through  a  fault " 

The  Marion  County  Oil  and  Gas  Company  drilled  a  well  on  the  Sher- 
man farm  in  sec.  29,  T.  2  N.,  R.  1  E.,  half  a  mile  east  of  the  shaft  of  the 
mine.  The  well  was  completed  byNovember  1,  L908,  with  only  a  showing 
of  oil  in  a  sand  immediately  below  No.  (i  coal  (now  known  as  the  Dykstra 
sand).  Three  other  wells  were  drilled  just  southwest  of  the  Sherman  well 
on  the  Dykstra  farm  in  sec.  32.  These  had  an  initial  production  of  18  barrels 
a  day  each  after  shot  and  by  the  end  of  1908  their  production  had  declined 
to  3  barrels  a  day  each. 

The  latter  part  of  1908  was  a  time  of  considerable  leasing  activity  in 
the  region.  A  north  and  south  direction  of  leasing  was  maintained  upon 
the  supposition  that  an  oil  field  in  this  locality  would  naturally  parallel  the 
La  Salle  anticline.  In  the  early  spring  of  1909  the  L.  Stein  No.  1  well  was 
drilled  in  sec.  5,  T.  2  N.,  R.  1  E.  The  shallow  sand  found  in  the  Dykstra 
wells  was  not  reported  in  this  well  but  a  sand  producing  oil  was  found  at 
1404  feet  and  was  named  the  "Stein"  sand.  A  thickness  of  22  feet  was 
reported  and  the  yield  was  50  barrels  per  day.  Meantime,  the  Benoist  No.  1 
well  of  the  Southwestern  Oil  and  Gas  Company  was  being  drilled  in  the 
NE.  cor.  sec.  8,  T.  2  N.,  R.  1  E.  This  well  was  located  1200  feet  southeast 
of  Stein  No.  1.     It  found  only  a  show  of  oil  in  the  Stein  sand,  and  drilling 


4  Bell,  A.   H.,  Oil   investigations  in   the  Centralia  area — preliminary   report:    Illinois 
State   Geol.   Survey,    Illinois   Petroleum   No.    4,   pp.    6-12,   Aug.    28,    1926. 

Oil    investigations    in    the    Centralia    area — preliminary    report    concluded:     Illinois 
State  Geol.  Survey,  Illinois  Petroleum  No.  5,  pp.  1-10,  Oct.   16,   1926. 

5  Blatchley,    R.    S.,    Illinois   oil   resources:    Illinois    State   Geol.    Survey   Bull.    16,   pp. 
130-132,   1910. 


ILLINOIS  STATE  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY 


3  3051  00005  1403 


STRUCTURE  OF  CENTRALIA   AND  SANDOVAL  OIL   FIELDS  6 

was  continued.  At  1528  feet  it  struck  what  is  known  as  the  Benoist  sand 
which  gave  gas  and  oil.  The  upper  12  feet  of  the  sand  contained  gas  having 
a  pressure  of  370  pounds  per  square  inch.  The  lower  portion  of  the  sand 
from  1540  to  1546  yielded  200  barrels  of  oil  per  day. 

In  the  succeeding  years  about  150  wells  were  drilled  in  an  area  of  6 
square  miles  around  the  discovery  well,  and  a  boundary  of  production  was 
found  on  all  sides. 

Structure 

regional  folding 
The  Centralia-Sandoval  area  is  situated  a  little  west  of  the  center  of 
the  Illinois  structural  basin,  and,  accordingly,  the  regional  dip  is  to  the  east. 
To  the  south  and  southwest  is  the  Ozark  highland,  a  geanticline  of  major 
importance  and  extent.  About  70  miles  to  the  northeast,  is  the  La  Salle 
anticline.  In  many  localities  throughout  southern  Illinois  the  rock  strata 
have  been  affected  by  gentle  folding  and  in  some  places  by  faulting.  One 
of  the  most  pronounced  of  these  gentle  folds  is  the  Duquoin  anticline,  or, 
more  accurately,  monocline.11  It  is  known  to  extend  for  a  distance  of  20 
miles  north  from  Elkville  to  a  point  2  miles  east  of  Dubois  closely  parallel 
to  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad.  Certain  well-defined  structural  features  of 
the  Centralia-Sandoval  area  are  approximately  in  line  with  the  axis  of  the 
Duquoin  anticline,  though  it  is  not  known  whether  the  latter  fold  is  con- 
tinuous across  the  intervening  gap  of  48  miles. 

DETAILED   FOLDING 

Detailed  subsurface  structure  of  the  Pennsylvania::  strata  in  the  Cen- 
tralia-Sandoval area  is  shown  in  figure  1  by  means  of  contours  representing 
the  elevations  of  Herrin  (No.  6)  coal  with  reference  to  sea  level.  The 
depth  of  the  coal  was  obtained  from  well  logs  and  mine  surveys  at  as  many 
points  as  possible.    Elevations  were  determined  by  plane  table  survey. 

The  boundaries  of  mine  workings  have  been  indicated  on  the  map  by 
shaded  lines.  Elevations  had  been  determined  by  the  mine  engineers  in  only 
one  of  the  five  mined  areas,  namely  the  Centralia  Coal  Company's  mines 
Nos.  2  and  5  south  of  Centralia.  For  the  Marion  County  Coal  Company's 
Glen  Ridge  mine  at  Junction  City,  elevations  were  determined  by  an  under- 
ground plane  table  survey  by  the  writer's  party.  For  the  other  three  mined 
areas,  namely  at  Odin,  Sandoval,  and  the  Centralia  Coal  Company's  mines 
Nos.  3  and  4,  underground  elevations  had  not  been  determined  and  since 
none  of  these  mines  had  been  in  operation  for  a  number  of  years  it  was  not 
possible  to  enter  them.  The  best  available  information  was  that  given  from 
memory  by   former   engineers  and   superintendents   of   the   mines.      It   con- 

8  Fisher,  D.  J.,  Structure  of  Herrin   (No.   6)   coal  seam   near   Duquoin:   Illinois   State 
Geol.  Survey  Report  of  Investigations  No.  5,  p.   24,   1925. 


4  ILLINOIS!   PETROLEUM 

sisted  of  estimates  of  per  cent  grades  in  various  parts  of  the  mines  and 
these  formed  the  basis  for  determining  the  position  of  some  of  the  contours 
in  figure  1. 

The  regional  dip  of  the  Paleozoic  strata  in  the  Centralia-Sandoval  area 
is  to  the  east.  For  Herrin  (No.  6)  coal  it  varies  from  35  feet  per  mile  across 
the  southern  part  of  the  area  to  20  feet  per  mile  across  the  northern  part. 
The  maximum  dip  for  the  area  (in  Centralia  Coal  Company's  mine  No.  5) 
is  140  feet  in  half  a  mile  (5.3  per  cent  or  3°). 

Two  conspicuous  structural  features  are  shown  in  figure  1.  One.  the 
Centralia  monocline,  is  a  north-south  belt  of  relatively  strong  east  dip  which 
is  associated  with  a  fault  zone  of  similar  trend.  The  most  continuous  fault 
is  about  6  miles  long.  The  upthrow  is  to  the  east ;  the  maximum  displace- 
ment of  110  feet  occurs  in  sec.  ?,  T.  1  N.,  R.  1  E.,  east  of  the  shaft  of  the 
Centralia  Coal  Company's  mine  No.  4.  The  displacement  decreases  north- 
ward and  southward  from  this  point.  The  other  conspicuous  feature  is  a 
series  of  anticlines  and  synclines  with  an  east-west  alignment  which  are  in- 
terrupted by  the  Centralia  monocline.  The  best  example  is  the  Sandoval 
anticline  which  seems  to  be  a  feature  of  an  east-west  trending  fold  rather 
than  of  the  north-south  Duquoin  fold. 

Two  cross-sections  in  an  east-west  direction  (fig.  "2)  show  the  attitude 
of  No.  6  coal  and  illustrate  the  fault  with  the  downthrow  on  the  west. 

Elevation 
in  feet 


-100. 


Fig.  2.     A — B,  cross-section  through  Glen  Ridge  anticline  and  Junction  City 

dome. 
C — D,  cross-section  through  Hanseman  well  and  Langewisch-Kuester 

pool. 
C — D',    same    cross-section    as    C — D    with    vertical    and    horizontal 

scales  equal.      (See  fig.  1  for  lines  of  cross-sections.) 


STRUCTVBK   OF  CENTRALIA   AM)   SANDOVAL   OIL   FIELDS 


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MISSISSIPPIAN 


STTUI'TIKK.   OK  (  KNTUAI.1A    AM)   SANDOVAL   Oil.    F1KI.DS 


Two  structure  maps  were  drawn  for  the  Sandoval  area,  one  with  No.  6 
coal  as  the  key  horizon  and  the  other  on  the  Benoist  sand  which  is  here  930 
to  980  feet  below  No.  6  coal  stratigraphically  (figs.  3  and  4).  These  two 
maps  show  closed  anticlines  of  essentially  similar  outline  and  trend.  The 
chief  difference  between  them  is  that  the  dips  are  in  most  directions  more 
pronounced  on  the  sand  than  on  the  coal. 

The  logs  for  the  wells  drilled  by  the  Southwestern  Oil  and  Gas  Com- 
pany,   which    owns    nearly    two-thirds    of    the    productive    acreage    in    the 

Elevation 
in  feet 

Sea  level 


-100 


-1000 


Top  of 
Benoist  sand 


-1100  . 


Sea  level 


-100 


-1000 


-1100 


2000 


4000 


Scale 

1 

6000 


8000 


10000 


12000  feet 


Pig.  5.  Cross-sections  through  the  Sandoval  pool,  comparing  the  attitude  of 
Herrin  (No.  6)  coal  with  that  of  the  top  of  the  Benoist  sand.  (See  fig.  3 
for  lines  of  cross-sections.) 

Sandoval  held,  are  "skeleton'"  lugs  and  most  of  them  give  the  depth  of  only 
a  coal  and  the  Benoist  sand.  The  coal  recorded  in  some  of  them  is  probably 
Merrin  (  No.  *i )  coal.  In  determining  the  structure  of  the  Benoist  sand  the 
skeleton  logs  could  he  used  with  very  few  exceptions,  but  many  of  them 
could  not  he  used  in  constructing  the  structure  map  of  the  coal  bed  because 
of  difficulty  in  correlating  the  coals.  Accordingly  the  structure  of  the  coal 
was  determined  from  a  smaller  number  of  datum  points  than  that  of  the 
sand. 


10  hxinois  pp:troleum 

Two  cross-sections  through  the  Sandoval  pool  (fig.  5)  compare  the 
attitude  of  No.  G  coal  with  that  of  the  top  of  the  Benoist  sand.  They  show 
an  increase  o!  interval  of  30  feet  to  the  west  and  north. 

Producing  Horizons 

In  order  to  consider  the  relation  of  production  to  structure  a  brief 
resume  of  the  producing  sands  is  here  given,  and  for  the  purpose  of  show- 
ing their  relative  importance  some  production  figures  are  included.  Oil  has 
been  produced  from  five  sands  in  the  Centralia- Sandoval  area,  three  of  which 
are  in  the  Pennsylvanian  and  two  in  the  Chester.  Named  in  order  from  the 
top  downward  these  are  the  (1)  Dykstra,  (2)  Wilson,  (3)  Petro,  (4)  Stein, 
and  (5)  Benoist  sands.  Although  no  locality  is  known  in  which  they  are 
all  present,  their  approximate  stratigraphic  positions  are  illustrated  in  one 
generalized  section  (fig.  6). 

Pennsylvanian  sands:  The  Dykstra  sand,  lying  closely  below  Herrin 
(No.  6)  coal,  is  the  sand  in  which  oil  was  first  discovered  in  the  area.  The 
total  production  obtained  from  it  has  been  insignificant.  It  is  one  of  the  two 
producing  sands  in  the  Junction  City  pool ;  the  other  one  is  the  Wilson  sand 
which  is  situated  about  100  feet  lower  in  the  section.  In  the  summer  of 
1926,  6.6  barrels  per  day  were  being  produced  by  nine  pumping  wells  fron 
the  Wilson  sand  and  2.5  barrels  per  day  by  two  pumping  wells  from  the 
Dykstra  sand. 

The  most  important  Pennsylvanian  production  in  the  area  is  that  of 
the  Waraac  pool  and  here  the  oil  comes  from  the  Petro  sand  which  has  been 
placed  tentatively  in  the  Pottsville,  although  it  may  possibly  belong  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  Carbondale.  This  field  was  opened  early  in  1922.  Dur- 
ing the  period  of  five  years  from  the  beginning  of  1922  to  the  end  of  1926, 
a  total  of  approximately  200,000  barrels  of  oil  was  produced. 

Chester  sands:  The  Benoist  sand  has  produced  nearly  all  of  the  two 
and  one-half  million  barrels  of  oil  obtained  from  the  Sandoval  pool.  It  lies 
from  930  to  980  feet  below  Herrin  (No.  6)  coal.  About  100  feet  above 
the  Benoist  sand  in  the  section  is  the  Stein  sand  from  which  the  first  oil  at 
Sandoval  was  produced.  The  Stein  sand  production  was  relatively  small 
and  short-lived  as  compared  with  that  from  the  Benoist  sand  and  all  the  oil 
now  produced  in  the  field  is  from  the  Benoist  sand.  The  producing  sand 
in  the  Langewisch-Kuester  and  Brown  pools  is  in  the  lower  Chester  and  it 
has  been  tentatively  correlated  with  the  Stein  sand  of  the  Sandoval  pool. 
This  production,  although  small,  has  proved  to  be  long-lived. 

The  Relation  of  Production  to  Structure 

The  productive  areas  are  so  situated  with  respect  to  the  structural 
features  of  No.  6  coal  as  to  suggest  the  probability  of  the  accumulation  of 


STRUCTURE  OF  CENTRALIS   AND  SANDOVAL  Oil.    FIELDS 


11 


Depth 
in  feet 


100-: 


200- 


300- 


400- 


500 


600 


700- 


800- 


900- 


1000- 


1100 


1200- 


1300 


1400 


1500- 


Pleistocene  System 


Henin  (No.  6)  coal  ; 
Dvkstra  sand 


Wilson  ^>;i  if  I 


Petro  sand 


i! 

J". 


ISenoist  sand 


*9 


F\a.  6.    Generalized  columnar  section  of 
Centralia-Sandoval  area 


12  ILLINOIS   PETROLEUM 

the  oil  into  pools  under  two  sets  of  geological  conditions.  In  the  Sandoval 
and  Wamac  pools,  production  extends  over  the  tops  of  domes,  and  the 
boundaries  of  production  tend  to  be  parallel  to  the  structure  contours.  The 
location  of  =these  pools  seems  to  have  been  determined  by  the  folding  of 
porous  sand  strata  of  relatively  wide  lateral  extent.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
minor  pools,  Junction  City,  Langewisch-Kuester,  and  Brown,  are  situated 
on  the  flanks  of  anticlines,  and  the  determining  condition  in  their  location 
appears  to  have  been  the  occurrence  of  localized  bodies  of  porous  sand 
which  were  features  of  original  deposition. 

NEW   PRODUCING   HORIZON   IN   WABASH   COUNTY 

By  Gail  F.  Moulton 

The  Eastern  Gulf  Company  have  been  successful  in  their  attempt  to  dis- 
cover a  deeper  producing  horizon  in  Wabash  County  in  their  test  on  the 
Jesse  Cisel  farm  in  the  SE.  y4  SE.  yA  sec.  2,  T.  1  N.,  R.  12  W.  The  early 
reports  are  that  this  well  is  obtaining  its  production  from  the  McClosky 
sand  which  was  found  at  a  depth  of  about  2200  feet.  At  the  present  time 
no  information  is  available  regarding  the  size  of  this  well,  but  it  is  believed 
that  it  will  make  a  commercial  producer. 

The  fact  that  production  has  been  found  in  the  McClosky  sand  is  oi 
considerable  importance  to  Wabash  County,  for  new  work  of  prospecting 
deeper  sands  in  localities  where  earlier  drilling  had  failed  to  find  the  Biehl 
and  the  1500-foot  sands  on  favorable  parts  of  the  structure  is  encouraged. 
The  McClosky  sand  production  in  the  Murphy  pool  in  Lawrence  County 
only  seven  miles  northeast  of  the  new  well  has  been  very  satisfactory.  Some 
of  the  wells  produced  more  than  3000  barrels  per  day,  and  were  the  largest 
in  the  State. 

In  the  Murphy  pool  and  adjacent  territory,  the  McClosky  sand  is  not- 
ably irregular  in  productivity,  and  occurs  in  several  lenses.  No  statement 
can  be  made  regarding  its  character  in  Wabash  County  until  further  drilling 
has  been  done,  but  it  is  believed  that  similar  conditions  will  be  found. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  Illinois  operators,  it  will  be  of  great 
assistance  to  have  a  map  giving  a  revised  interpretation  of  the  structural 
conditions  in  the  area  north  of  Allendale,  so  that  those  desirous  of  making- 
tests  of  the  new  producing  horizon  will  be  able  to  choose  locations  on  the 
higher  parts  of  the  structure.  A  map  and  a  brief  statement  in  regard  to 
prospecting  for  this  new  deeper  producing  horizon  will  be  included  in  an 
early  number  of  Illinois  Petroleum. 


11      (71558 — 1500) 


